Is Music dying?

[Mr Peabody]

What prompts this question I look forward to what I call "new music Friday", it's when all the new releases hit Tidal and other streaming services. I was disappointed yesterday not much hit. Rather than being March the service looked like the end of the year when nothing is usually released.

My first question was this the same for Qobuz and Spotify, other services? In mean there were a few albums but not in genres I listen to and it was very few. "Metal" typically has nearly a dozen new titles due to all the small labels, this week maybe 5. Same for Rock/Indy. 2026 in general seemed to be slow, maybe not as bad as Friday except for the first couple weeks of January. Even Jazz has been slow on new releases. And, don't get me started on what is under Jazz these days. I mean I like new music/bands like Go Go Penguin, Yuseff Days but some of that noise...... I guess someone likes it, LOL I'm usually the guy who turns my friends onto new music, so far I've nothing.

So what do you guys see and feel is going on? Seriously, I can look at my digital library and notice new additions have been down the past few years.

 

[Mike]

There are sure weeks where the new releases are stinkers. But I don’t think good music is dying. We are just no longer finding everything tasty at the big buffet that is streaming.

 

[Phil A]

There have been studies - e.g. https://www.the-independent.com/art...top-song-melodies-simpler-study-b2574633.html

They have found (with regard to mainly populat music) that the complexity and variety of instruments used have decreased since the 1960s.

There's still plenty of good music out there. There are areas of the United States (and I'm sure in other countries) where live music available is not to the same level as other places. Many of the mainstream places which used to sell music (Tower Record Stores, Borders stores and even places like Best Buy) are gone. So we have things like streaming, internet radio and forums like these now.

I remember when I was young (long ago) where there were so many more places to buy music vs. what's around today.

 

[exupgh12]

Physical era — CDs/vinyl sold for ~$15–$25. Artists often got 10–25% (sometimes much more on direct sales), so a decent-selling album could earn real money.

Streaming era — Pay is per stream (~$0.003–$0.008 per play on average). A track needs tens or hundreds of thousands of streams to generate meaningful income.

This pushes artists toward singles, short tracks, and playlist/viral plays instead of full albums. The low per-stream rate and high volume needed make sustainable income harder for most artists than in the old sales model.

The payment structure—not streaming itself—is what many say is harming music quality and artist earnings.

 

[mep]

Physical era — CDs/vinyl sold for ~$15–$25. Artists often got 10–25% (sometimes much more on direct sales), so a decent-selling album could earn real money.

Streaming era — Pay is per stream (~$0.003–$0.008 per play on average). A track needs tens or hundreds of thousands of streams to generate meaningful income.

This pushes artists toward singles, short tracks, and playlist/viral plays instead of full albums. The low per-stream rate and high volume needed make sustainable income harder for most artists than in the old sales model.

The payment structure—not streaming itself—is what many say is harming music quality and artist earnings.

And meanwhile back at the ranch, premium reissues of old jazz and rock LPs are everywhere.

 

[Michaels HiFi]

Physical era — CDs/vinyl sold for ~$15–$25. Artists often got 10–25% (sometimes much more on direct sales), so a decent-selling album could earn real money.

Streaming era — Pay is per stream (~$0.003–$0.008 per play on average). A track needs tens or hundreds of thousands of streams to generate meaningful income.

This pushes artists toward singles, short tracks, and playlist/viral plays instead of full albums. The low per-stream rate and high volume needed make sustainable income harder for most artists than in the old sales model.

The payment structure—not streaming itself—is what many say is harming music quality and artist earnings.

I think people forget that is not an accurate comparison.

The good news for artists is their music will be listened to / streamed in exponentially higher numbers than when physical medium needed to be sold. Also it's much easier to discover their music and thus earn revenue than before where you had to decide whether to waste $20 on an album/artist you hadn't heard of.

Previously when an album was sold the artist only got paid once. Now they get paid every time I listen to their songs.

And finally most artist have always made money on tours more than album sales.

As someone who doesn't want my monthly rates for streaming music to keep increasing, I am totally OK with what artists are getting paid. Let's see the record labels and executives reduce their cut significantly they are making on the backs of the artists before they are so quick to ask me to pay more.

Just my personal opinion.